


moments that happen suddenly

by zeebee823



Series: The Pound [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:09:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28208850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeebee823/pseuds/zeebee823
Summary: "The moments that change your life are the ones that happen suddenly, like the one where you die."- Terry Pratchett
Relationships: Jason Todd & Original Character(s)
Series: The Pound [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2043346
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	moments that happen suddenly

Of all the jobs Sarah had, washing dishes was quickly becoming her favorite one. No customers to deal with, rarely bothered by coworkers, guaranteed warmth, what more could a girl ask for. The only downside was that occasionally her coworkers would decide to use the very small “break room” for phone calls, but that rarely happened.

Since her and the other kids in their little Crime Alley troupe had learned that Jason had been adopted by none other than Bruce Wayne, they tried to keep an eye on the news to keep an eye on him. Sure, Mister Wayne was rich and seemed like a dolt, but they’d been through too much to fall for the “Brucie” act he put on for galas.

It was May 2nd when Sarah first heard the news.

Washing dishes, listening to a podcast with one earbud in, she noticed a manager, she was pretty sure his name started with a W, moved past her into the shitty breakroom, getting louder and angrier at the person he was calling.

“- what do you mean you’re in the hospital! You told me it was only Robin that had been noticed staking you out, not the Bat!” Sarah paused the podcast but kept her earbud in. After shutting the door, and realizing he was talking about details she did not want to know, Sarah refocused on washing the various containers, her mind wandering. _Normally Batman lets Robin do his thing on things like small-fry drug deals. I hope Jason’s okay._

-

On May 11th at their semi-regular meetings, Sarah didn’t even have to bring it up - Jackson had noticed Robin’s absence and was one bad decision away from questioning Bruce Wayne himself. Jennifer’s mother-henning was more easily verbalized, and more widespread, as usual.

“- and Batman just put Joker back in Arkham after he made some bullshit political thing overseas and so far as I can tell that hasn’t been annulled so -”

“Jennifer, he’s gonna be in Crime Alley in a little less than two months. I hate waiting, but one of us could, iunno, catch him while he’s brooding and get some answers.” Christopher was idly clacking away at the computer he’d nabbed from a drug bust while the cops were waiting for Batman to show up a month ago.

“I can take Allison with me, she’s still got a baby face -”

“Don’t call me a baby, I turned eleven last week!”

The room descended into chaos, and Sarah saw Jackson’s shoulders loosen, just a little.

-

Batman hadn’t shown up yet, and Nick was starting to understand why Jennifer and Jackson got so stressed when dealing with adults. Allison was sitting with him in the foyer, and sleep was nipping at her heels. He stood up to shake the static out of his limbs and looked out the front door, but the Bat-signal was still off. The lack of the Bat on June 26th was abnormal to say the least, and Nick decided to take Jackson’s advice and sleep in the theater tonight. With how brutal he’d been getting, Nick had no idea if the assholes of Crime Alley would stay in when the Bat hadn’t made an appearance for the first time anyone could remember.

Batman would always prowl Crime Alley on June 26th, and he always visited the Monarch Theater before midnight.

-

They were all concerned, but there wasn’t anything they could do.

Allison used her time at the library to look through Gotham’s various news sources, but found no word of Jason. Jackson had asked some of the other thugs, but no one had seen Robin since early April. Chris couldn’t find any word of the wayward bird on any of the dark web forum websites.

It was as if Jason Todd had disappeared into thin air, but Bruce Wayne wasn’t being held accountable.

-

Months passed with no sign of Jason, and all had already accepted that they’d never see him again. The main question remaining was why Bruce Wayne hadn’t mentioned his adopted son’s disappearance, but that was overshadowed by the appearance of both Batman and Robin in Crime Alley, on April 27th of all days.

Sarah was furious.

“Who does that asshole think he is, dragging another kid into crime-fighting?” She punctuated the question with a punch, and Jennifer hummed noncommittally. “We have no idea what happened to Jason, and he decides money can buy everything and brings a whiter kid into the mix!” Jennifer vaguely registered the chain creaking against where it was bolted to the ceiling.

“Don’t break your hands -”

“I need them, yeah yeah, but FUCK!” Sarah kicked the punching bag, which hit the wall with a satisfying FWOP. She stepped back and lowered herself to sit on the training mat. After a moment of quiet while Sarah caught her breath and Jennifer continued to study, Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” jolted Sarah out of her storming thoughts. She answered, and put the phone on speaker.

“Sup, Chris.”

“Hey Jen! I’m glad I caught y’all, Alli and Nicky just finished chatting with Batman.” Sarah and Jennifer locked gazes, both frozen. Chris continued talking. “Alli still has a baby face, but she managed to ask Batman and Robin to look for Jason. The Bat was as stoic as ever, but Robin visibly winced. Someone was trying to kick me out of CCTV, but this is my realm.” Sarah could feel the rage building in her veins. She knew that Chris and Jennifer were just waiting for her to explode, but she forced herself to calm down. As calmly as she could, she finally spoke. “Thanks for the update, C.”

“No problem, S.” She could hear the hint of a smile in their voice, and Chris hung up.

By the time Jennifer had hurried over to Sarah on the mats, Sarah’s tears had evolved into hiccupping sobs.

**Author's Note:**

> :3  
> I wrote this in... maybe five hours? But hey, character development!


End file.
